Titus 1:6 Commentary: Elders, One Wife & Faithful Children

Crete was a difficult place to plant a church. Paul quotes a Cretan poet in verse 12: 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.' The reputation was so bad that the verb krētizein (to Cretise) meant to lie. Into this morally lax culture, elders needed to be above reproach, especially in their homes.

Roman law technically prohibited polygamy, but both concubinage and serial divorce were common among the upper classes. A man might have a wife and also kept a concubine, or move through multiple marriages without stigma. Against this background, Paul’s demand that an elder be mias gunaikos anēr, a 'one-woman man', was a countercultural call for sexual fidelity and marital singleness. It echoed the Old Testament standard for priests, who could marry only a virgin (Leviticus 21:7, 14), and the Jewish ideal of marital faithfulness.

The concern for children’s behaviour also made sense in a culture where fathers were expected to govern their households. The example of Eli, whose sons were ‘sons of Belial’ (1 Samuel 2:12-17), hung over Jewish memory: a priest who could not control his own sons brought judgment on his whole house. Paul draws the same connection in 1 Timothy 3:5: if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he care for God’s church?

The literary context reinforces this. Just after the qualifications, Paul rebukes false teachers who are 'unruly' themselves (v10). The elder must be the opposite of the false teachers, his home life must demonstrate the order and soundness that they lack. The qualifications are not a checklist of moral perfection; they are a screen to ensure that a man’s life matches the gospel he preaches in a culture where both immorality and false teaching were pressing dangers.

The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Titus 1:6. The Greek text is stable across the major manuscripts. The phrase tekna pista appears uniformly, and the surrounding vocabulary (miās gunaikos anēr, asōtias, anupotakta) shows no variation that would affect the interpretive questions.

Early church writing, such as the Didache and the Apostolic Constitutions, took this verse as a clear rule that a bishop must be married only once. The rule was used to exclude from the clergy any man who had married a second time after the death of his wife, a position later relaxed in Eastern Orthodoxy but retained in Roman Catholicism for bishops (who now take celibacy). The Reformation saw Luther and Calvin use this verse to argue for clerical marriage, since Paul lists it as a positive qualification, a husband of one wife, not an obstacle.

In more recent history, the phrase has been central to debates over ordaining divorced and remarried men. Some denominations apply it as a permanent prohibition on remarriage after divorce (unless the previous spouse died). Others treat it as a warning against a pattern of marital unfaithfulness rather than a mechanical rule. The ‘faithful children’ clause has received less attention historically but has become a point of contention as churches consider the faith status of the children of pastors.

Three-point outline

1. A blameless reputation. The foundational requirement: the elder must not be open to credible accusation. This is about public character, not sinless perfection.
2. Faithful marriage. The elder must be a man of one woman, no concurrent marriages, no pattern of infidelity or serial divorce. This protects the picture of Christ’s faithful love for the church.
3. Well-ordered children. Whether the children are believers or merely well-behaved, the point is that the elder’s home is not a source of public scandal. Children who are debauched or defiant disqualify the father from leadership.

Five-point outline

1. Blameless before accusation. The Greek anegklētos means not merely innocent but above the reach of a legal charge. The elder’s life should not give opponents ammunition.
2. One wife. This prohibits both polygamy and any remaining marriage from a prior relationship (the participle echōn, “having,” is present active, continuous possession of one wife).
3. Faithful children. The hotly debated phrase. Some traditions require children to be professing Christians; others require only that they be faithful in conduct and not rebellious. Both agree that children’s lives reflect on the father’s ability to lead.
4. Not accused of riot (asōtia). This word pictures a life that “does not save”, squandering resources, debauchery (think of the prodigal son in Luke 15). Children must not live wastefully.
5. Not unruly (anupotakta). Literally ‘not subject to control.’ The elder’s children must not be insubordinate. This tests the father’s authority and the home’s order.